PRE-HELLENIC GODDESSES
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I consulted Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths
by Charlene Spretnak for the information on this page. This book has a wealth
of information on Pre-Hellenic Greek myths, and some surprising information
about the goddesses that were worshipped long before the Olympian gods
became the main gods of classic Greece. To read the complete myths, I highly
recommend Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, which can be purchased on
amazon.com and accessed through my links/contacts page.
Thousands of years before classical myths took form, a rich oral tradition of
mythmaking had existed. These earlier goddesses that ruled the world were
relegated to a lower position after three waves of barbarian invaders—the
Ionians, the Achaeans and finally the Dorians, moved into Greece from 2500 to
1000 B.C. These invaders brought with them a patriarchal social order and their
thunderbolt wielding God, Zeus. They were unable to completely wipe out the
firmly rooted Goddess worship so they integrated these goddesses into their
myths.
GAIA (GE): She is the ancient Earth Mother who brought forth the world and the
human race from the gaping void called, “Chaos.” To the Greeks, the earth was
the abode of the dead so the earth deity had power over the ghostly world.
Gaia acquired an oracular function because dreams were believed to ascend
from the realm of the dead. A priestess divined the future while in a trance as
she sat on a three-legged stool over vapors arising from a crevice. She
appears in records of her worship at Delphi, Athens and Aegae and was the
earliest possessor of the Delphic oracle—before Poseidon, Dionysos or Apollo.
PANDORA: She is the kore, or maiden form, of the Earth Goddess. Sometimes
she is called Ge, or Aneidora, (she who sends up gifts), or Pandora (giver of all
gifts). In a later myth told by Hesiod, she is portrayed as a curious, troublesome
girl who releases evil into the world.
THEMIS: She is another of the Earth Mother’s emanations. She is the force that
binds people together—the collective conscious, the social imperative, and the
social order. Her name is believed to mean “steadfast” and she became the
personification of justice and righteousness. In the Olympian myths, Themis is
made into a lesser goddess and allowed two functions: She summons Zeus’s
assembly because he cannot summon his own assembly and she presides over
feasts.
APHRODITE: She is a fertility Goddess, the primal mother of on-going creation.
In Crete the epithet Antheia (flower goddess) was connected with Aphrodite at
Knossos. This title reveals an old link to herbal magic and she is associated
with the apple myrtle, poppy, rose and water-mint. Aphrodite is also the maker
of morning dew. She came to Greece from Cyprus and was originally from
western Asia. When the patriarchal order revised the story of her birth, the
procreative Goddess from Asia is portrayed as having been born of sea foam
caused by the severed genitals of Ouranos, who had been castrated by his
son, Cronos. The tragic story of Adonis, the young shepherd she loved, is
associated with the Isis/Osiris legend of Egypt in which the yearly king is
sacrificed at the end of his reign.
TRIAD OF THE MOON:
ARTEMIS: She is the Goddess of untamed nature. Central to her worship are
ecstatic dances and the sacred bough, probably derived from ancient moon
tree worship, the source of immortality, secret knowledge and inspiration.
Artemis assists females of all species in childbirth and gave the name artemisia
to the medicinal herb now called mugwort, which is used to encourage delivery.
She was worshipped throughout Greece, but was most popular in Arcadia
where she lived in the wild forests and was the most virginal of the Goddesses.
Another important site for her worship was Ephesus in Anatolia where her
qualities of Mother Goddess were emphasized. Two early forms of Artemis were
Britomaris of eastern Crete and Diktynna of western Crete. In Olympian myths
Artemis is Apollo’s sister and she takes on the role of patron of hunters.
SELENE (also called Mene): is the moon Goddess who pulls the full moon
across the sky with her chariot. She usually drives oxen or steers, or sometimes
horses. In her early forms, she is conceived as a cow with the ancient “horns of
consecration,” which form the crescent moon. Little trace of her worship has
survived.
HECATE: Goddess of the waning and dark moon, she has chthonic
associations and rules over ghosts and demons. Ritually prescribed food known
as “Hecate’s suppers,” were offered to her as a form of purification and her
image was set before homes to avert evil. She is adept at sorcery and is called
“the mother of witches.” At some places in Greece, Hecate’s torches were
carried around the freshly sown fields to promote their fertility. In Olympian
myths she is the daughter of Hera and Zeus.
HERA: She is the Goddess of women and fertility. She is connected to the three
stages of a woman’s life—maiden, fertile woman, elder. She is also connected
to the three phases of the moon, which in earlier times women’s menstruation
cycle followed closely the moon’s phases. Hera was worshipped throughout
Greece, but her chief center was at Argos. She presided over “the sacred
marriage,” the merging of the lunar cow and solar bull, which was a celebration
of renewal and fertility in nature, especially of the soil. At Olympia the Goddess’
Heraion long predates the temple of Zeus where women ran races from the
beginning of time. Runners were selected from three age groups representing
the three phases of the moon. These girl’s races of the feast of Heraia held
every four years pre-dated the boy’s races by many years. In patriarchal
mythology Hera becomes the wife of Zeus and is portrayed as a jealous,
vindictive wife. When the conquering Northerners pass from Dodona to
Thessaly, Zeus drops his wife Dione at Dodona, and in passing from Thessaly
to Olympia, he marries Hera--the conquering chieftain marries a daughter of the
conquered land. Though Hera is portrayed as troublesome, in reality she
reflects the turbulent native princess—coerced but never really subdued by an
alien conqueror.
ATHENA (or ATHENE): She was originally a Cretan Goddess who watched over
the home and town. Attributes of fertility and renewal are revealed in her
association with tree (or pillar) and snake symbolism. Athena is patron of
wisdom, arts and skills—she especially protects architects, sculptors, potters,
spinners and weavers. She was also Goddess of the matrifocal Pelasgoi of
Peloponnese. In addition to her strong following on Crete, she was worshipped
at the Pre-Hellenic sites of Argos, Sparta, Troy, Smyrna, Epidaurus, Troezen
and Pheneus. When the Mycenaean princes of the mainland adopted and
adapted Athena, she became the shielded defender of their citadels,
particularly Athens. In Olympian mythology she is firmly established as the cold,
rigid Goddess of war. Her matrifocal Cretan origins are so suppressed that she
is portrayed as a daughter born without a mother, having sprung fully armed
from Zeus’s head.
DEMETER: She is the Grain-Mother, the giver of crops. Her origins are Cretan
and she has been strongly identified with Gaia and to Isis. Every autumn the
women of early Greece observed a three-day, agricultural fertility ritual, the
Thesmophoria, in honor of Demeter. The three days were called the Kathodos
and Anodos (Down-going and Uprising), the Nesteia (Fasting), and the
Kalligeneia (Fair-Born or Fair Birth). The Thesmophoria, the Arrephoria, the
Skirophoria, The Stenia and the Haloa were rites practiced by women only and
were of extremely early origin. They later emerged as the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These Mysteries were kept secret, but may have to do with crops and the Rite
of Initiation—those who partake of the rite have better hopes concerning the
end of life. Demeter is sometimes compared to Isis in that she was a Queen of
the Underworld because as an Earth Mother, she could pass between the two
realms. At certain places in Greece, she was worshipped as “Demeter
Chthonia,” and in Athens the dead were called Demetreioi, “Demeter’s People.”
She not only brought all things to life, but when they died, they were received
back into her bosom.
PERSEPHONE: She is Demeter’s daughter, the Kore, or Grain-Maiden who
embodies the new crop. As the daughter of Demeter (the Maiden form),
Persephone may have also ruled the Underworld. The Olympian story about the
“rape of Persephone” is not part of the original mythology. This may be a
historical reference to the invasion of the northern Zeus-worshippers. The
original myth is very ancient and is a widely revered story of mother and
daughter. It long pre-dates the Judeo-Christian deification of father and
son.
by Charlene Spretnak for the information on this page. This book has a wealth
of information on Pre-Hellenic Greek myths, and some surprising information
about the goddesses that were worshipped long before the Olympian gods
became the main gods of classic Greece. To read the complete myths, I highly
recommend Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, which can be purchased on
amazon.com and accessed through my links/contacts page.
Thousands of years before classical myths took form, a rich oral tradition of
mythmaking had existed. These earlier goddesses that ruled the world were
relegated to a lower position after three waves of barbarian invaders—the
Ionians, the Achaeans and finally the Dorians, moved into Greece from 2500 to
1000 B.C. These invaders brought with them a patriarchal social order and their
thunderbolt wielding God, Zeus. They were unable to completely wipe out the
firmly rooted Goddess worship so they integrated these goddesses into their
myths.
GAIA (GE): She is the ancient Earth Mother who brought forth the world and the
human race from the gaping void called, “Chaos.” To the Greeks, the earth was
the abode of the dead so the earth deity had power over the ghostly world.
Gaia acquired an oracular function because dreams were believed to ascend
from the realm of the dead. A priestess divined the future while in a trance as
she sat on a three-legged stool over vapors arising from a crevice. She
appears in records of her worship at Delphi, Athens and Aegae and was the
earliest possessor of the Delphic oracle—before Poseidon, Dionysos or Apollo.
PANDORA: She is the kore, or maiden form, of the Earth Goddess. Sometimes
she is called Ge, or Aneidora, (she who sends up gifts), or Pandora (giver of all
gifts). In a later myth told by Hesiod, she is portrayed as a curious, troublesome
girl who releases evil into the world.
THEMIS: She is another of the Earth Mother’s emanations. She is the force that
binds people together—the collective conscious, the social imperative, and the
social order. Her name is believed to mean “steadfast” and she became the
personification of justice and righteousness. In the Olympian myths, Themis is
made into a lesser goddess and allowed two functions: She summons Zeus’s
assembly because he cannot summon his own assembly and she presides over
feasts.
APHRODITE: She is a fertility Goddess, the primal mother of on-going creation.
In Crete the epithet Antheia (flower goddess) was connected with Aphrodite at
Knossos. This title reveals an old link to herbal magic and she is associated
with the apple myrtle, poppy, rose and water-mint. Aphrodite is also the maker
of morning dew. She came to Greece from Cyprus and was originally from
western Asia. When the patriarchal order revised the story of her birth, the
procreative Goddess from Asia is portrayed as having been born of sea foam
caused by the severed genitals of Ouranos, who had been castrated by his
son, Cronos. The tragic story of Adonis, the young shepherd she loved, is
associated with the Isis/Osiris legend of Egypt in which the yearly king is
sacrificed at the end of his reign.
TRIAD OF THE MOON:
ARTEMIS: She is the Goddess of untamed nature. Central to her worship are
ecstatic dances and the sacred bough, probably derived from ancient moon
tree worship, the source of immortality, secret knowledge and inspiration.
Artemis assists females of all species in childbirth and gave the name artemisia
to the medicinal herb now called mugwort, which is used to encourage delivery.
She was worshipped throughout Greece, but was most popular in Arcadia
where she lived in the wild forests and was the most virginal of the Goddesses.
Another important site for her worship was Ephesus in Anatolia where her
qualities of Mother Goddess were emphasized. Two early forms of Artemis were
Britomaris of eastern Crete and Diktynna of western Crete. In Olympian myths
Artemis is Apollo’s sister and she takes on the role of patron of hunters.
SELENE (also called Mene): is the moon Goddess who pulls the full moon
across the sky with her chariot. She usually drives oxen or steers, or sometimes
horses. In her early forms, she is conceived as a cow with the ancient “horns of
consecration,” which form the crescent moon. Little trace of her worship has
survived.
HECATE: Goddess of the waning and dark moon, she has chthonic
associations and rules over ghosts and demons. Ritually prescribed food known
as “Hecate’s suppers,” were offered to her as a form of purification and her
image was set before homes to avert evil. She is adept at sorcery and is called
“the mother of witches.” At some places in Greece, Hecate’s torches were
carried around the freshly sown fields to promote their fertility. In Olympian
myths she is the daughter of Hera and Zeus.
HERA: She is the Goddess of women and fertility. She is connected to the three
stages of a woman’s life—maiden, fertile woman, elder. She is also connected
to the three phases of the moon, which in earlier times women’s menstruation
cycle followed closely the moon’s phases. Hera was worshipped throughout
Greece, but her chief center was at Argos. She presided over “the sacred
marriage,” the merging of the lunar cow and solar bull, which was a celebration
of renewal and fertility in nature, especially of the soil. At Olympia the Goddess’
Heraion long predates the temple of Zeus where women ran races from the
beginning of time. Runners were selected from three age groups representing
the three phases of the moon. These girl’s races of the feast of Heraia held
every four years pre-dated the boy’s races by many years. In patriarchal
mythology Hera becomes the wife of Zeus and is portrayed as a jealous,
vindictive wife. When the conquering Northerners pass from Dodona to
Thessaly, Zeus drops his wife Dione at Dodona, and in passing from Thessaly
to Olympia, he marries Hera--the conquering chieftain marries a daughter of the
conquered land. Though Hera is portrayed as troublesome, in reality she
reflects the turbulent native princess—coerced but never really subdued by an
alien conqueror.
ATHENA (or ATHENE): She was originally a Cretan Goddess who watched over
the home and town. Attributes of fertility and renewal are revealed in her
association with tree (or pillar) and snake symbolism. Athena is patron of
wisdom, arts and skills—she especially protects architects, sculptors, potters,
spinners and weavers. She was also Goddess of the matrifocal Pelasgoi of
Peloponnese. In addition to her strong following on Crete, she was worshipped
at the Pre-Hellenic sites of Argos, Sparta, Troy, Smyrna, Epidaurus, Troezen
and Pheneus. When the Mycenaean princes of the mainland adopted and
adapted Athena, she became the shielded defender of their citadels,
particularly Athens. In Olympian mythology she is firmly established as the cold,
rigid Goddess of war. Her matrifocal Cretan origins are so suppressed that she
is portrayed as a daughter born without a mother, having sprung fully armed
from Zeus’s head.
DEMETER: She is the Grain-Mother, the giver of crops. Her origins are Cretan
and she has been strongly identified with Gaia and to Isis. Every autumn the
women of early Greece observed a three-day, agricultural fertility ritual, the
Thesmophoria, in honor of Demeter. The three days were called the Kathodos
and Anodos (Down-going and Uprising), the Nesteia (Fasting), and the
Kalligeneia (Fair-Born or Fair Birth). The Thesmophoria, the Arrephoria, the
Skirophoria, The Stenia and the Haloa were rites practiced by women only and
were of extremely early origin. They later emerged as the Eleusinian Mysteries.
These Mysteries were kept secret, but may have to do with crops and the Rite
of Initiation—those who partake of the rite have better hopes concerning the
end of life. Demeter is sometimes compared to Isis in that she was a Queen of
the Underworld because as an Earth Mother, she could pass between the two
realms. At certain places in Greece, she was worshipped as “Demeter
Chthonia,” and in Athens the dead were called Demetreioi, “Demeter’s People.”
She not only brought all things to life, but when they died, they were received
back into her bosom.
PERSEPHONE: She is Demeter’s daughter, the Kore, or Grain-Maiden who
embodies the new crop. As the daughter of Demeter (the Maiden form),
Persephone may have also ruled the Underworld. The Olympian story about the
“rape of Persephone” is not part of the original mythology. This may be a
historical reference to the invasion of the northern Zeus-worshippers. The
original myth is very ancient and is a widely revered story of mother and
daughter. It long pre-dates the Judeo-Christian deification of father and
son.
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